FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog

Previously on Flap’s Blog:

Hugh Hewitt has this piece on the disclosure of Ron Brownstein, a national political correspondent, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and political analyst for CNN that his wife is now employed as an aide to Senator John McCain. The disclosure came at the end of Brownstein’s May 30th Washington Outlook column:

(Full disclosure: My wife recently took a job as an aide to Sen. John McCain [R-Ariz.], one of the judicial deal’s architects. Marriages that span the divide between the media and politics are common in Washington. They require both parties to draw a firm line between their personal attachments and professional responsibilities. I do not intend to treat McCain any differently as a result of my marriage, and my wife does not expect favored treatment for her boss. I certainly don’t expect any special treatment from McCain or his aides. Readers, of course, will have to make their own judgments, but I am confident that her new job will not affect my judgments, pro and con, about McCain and his initiatives.)

Now from L.A. Observed there is more:

At the end of his Monday column about Deep Throat and Watergate, Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz touches on Times political writer Ron Brownstein’s marriage to the communications director for State Sen. John McCain.

Times Washington Bureau Chief Doyle McManus says the couple is in Paris and “we decided not to stop the honeymoon to have the argument” about “where the right boundaries are” for Brownstein. “We’re all agreed that Ron can’t cover McCain per se,” but McManus sees no problem with Brownstein writing a story “if McCain’s name comes into it in a minor way. . . . We think Ron is the best political writer in the country and don’t think it’d serve the nation or our readers to take him off politics.”

Flap doesn’t care how well Brownstein writes. He has a conflict of interest and should step down from his current beat - or the Los Angeles Times should reassign him.

Will John Carroll have the integrity to initiate the reassignment or will he defer to Kinsley?

Check out this new device for zapping acne zits - the Zeno Zit Zapper:

Zeno is a handheld, portable electronic medical device that is clinically proven to make pimples disappear fast. In an FDA-reviewed, controlled clinical trial, 90% of blemishes treated with Zeno disappeared or faded within 24 hours…

Zeno is a clinically proven handheld (rechargeable) medical device. It is not a medication or a laser. It uses a medical heat dose treatment on individual acne blemishes in people with mild to moderate acne. It is best-suited to treat newly emerging blemishes - the ones where you can just feel a new bump forming under the skin. Zeno delivers a precisely controlled dose of heat to the area for 2-1/2 minutes. Dr. Crutchfield recommends treating blemishes 2-4 times, at least one hour apart, over the first 4-12 hours of a blemish’s appearance. It works by destroying bacteria and shortening the pimple’s life cycle significantly. Crutchfield also believes that it also increases blood flow in the area of the blemish and promotes quicker healing.

Crutchfield’s data and website photos suggest that mild to moderate acne is indeed susceptible to “the science of heat.”

Hummmm the device is a bit pricey at $225.00 but when you need it - well you need it!

MP Pat O’Brien announces at a news conference in Ottawa on Monday that he is quitting the Liberal Party to sit as an independent.

Liberal MP Pat O’Brien announced Monday he would be leaving the Liberal caucus to sit as an independent, saying Prime Minister Paul Martin had gone back on his promise to give adequate public consultation on same-sex marriage legislation:

“They’re determined to move forward on this issue, and you can see how and what a rush they are [in] to do that,” Mr. O’Brien said at a morning press conference on Monday.

“I can’t accept that in good conscience, so I leave the party with some regret, but my objective remains (to) defeat Bill C-38. Hopefully I can be more successful as an independent than I was as a Liberal.”

Mr. O’Brien, who represents the Ontario riding of London–Fanshawe, had threatened to jump ship in April if public consultation were not sought by the legislative committee studying the same-sex marriage bill.

So, will this new balance of power in Parliament mean a No-Confidence Vote? Remembering that the last call for an election was barely resisted by the Liberal Party.

Mr. O’Brien said Monday that he feels that the Prime Minister went back on his word and that the process to legislate same-sex marriage was “unfolding to be a farce.”

As it stands, there are 132 liberals, 98 Conservatives, 54 Bloc, 19 NDP, and four independents in the House. The second reading of the bill passed 164-137. At the time, only 35 Liberal members voted against the bill, which was supported by both the Bloc and the NDP.

If Mr. O’Brien wanted to defeat the bill in the House, he would have to muster nearly 15 more MPs to win. Failing that, Mr. O’Brien could only hope to force a confidence motion or hope that Mr. Martin retracted the bill.

Mr. O’Brien said he favours the latter.

So, stay tuned. Canada might have an election yet this year.

Captain Ed over at Captain’s Quarters opines:

It sounds as if O’Brien will be reluctant to support the Liberals if another no-confidence motion gets tabled in Parliament. This brings the Commons back to a 152-all tie, assuming that the Parliamentary factions line up as before. It places even more pressure on Chuck Cadman and David Kilgour now that budget issues have mostly been addressed.

In a fundraiser before the “Women for Hillary” gathering in Midtown Manhattan this morning Senator Hillary Clinton, D-NY, castigated the Bush Administration:

Senator Hillary Clinton castigated President Bush and Washington Republicans today as mad with power and bent on marginalizing Democrats during a speech to 1,000 supporters at her first major re-election fund-raiser, which netted about $250,000.

Mrs. Clinton, who is running for a second term in 2006 and is widely described as a possible Democratic nominee for the presidency in 2008, said that her party is hamstrung because Republicans dissemble and smear without shame and the news media has lost its investigatory zeal for exposing misdeeds.

That is right, Hillary, blame the demise of the Democrat Party on the declining MSM and the Fox News Channel. Like your husband, blame someone else instead of taking responsibility for your own failed policies.

Left unchallenged, especially if Democrats fail to pick up seats in next year’s Congressional elections, she said, Republican leaders could ram through extremist conservative judges, wreck Social Security and make unacceptable concessions to China, Saudi Arabia and other nations that are needed to finance the United States budget deficit.

“There has never been an administration, I don’t believe in our history, more intent upon consolidating and abusing power to further their own agenda,” Mrs. Clinton told the audience at a “Women for Hillary” gathering in Midtown Manhattan this morning.

The Republicans have been consolidating power because the people have voted the power to them. The American electorate has turned out of office left wing politicans that cling to the failed policies of the past (meaning the Clinton administration).

Abusing power? And how is that so, Senator? You said it, now substantiate it. What do you actually mean?

“I know it’s frustrating for many of you; it’s frustrating for me: Why can’t the Democrats do more to stop them?” she continued to growing applause and cheers. “I can tell you this: It’s very hard to stop people who have no shame about what they’re doing. It is very hard to tell people that they are making decisions that will undermine our checks and balances and constitutional system of government who don’t care. It is very hard to stop people who have never been acquainted with the truth.”

Mrs. Clinton described Republican leaders as messianic in their beliefs, willing to manipulate facts and even “destroy” the Senate to gain political advantage over the Democratic minority. She also labeled the House of Representatives as “a dictatorship of the Republican leadership,” where individual members are all but required to vote in lock-step with the majority’s agenda.

Referring to Congress’ Republican leadership, she said, “Some honestly believe they are motivated by the truth, they are motivated by a higher calling, they are motivated by, I guess, a direct line to the heavens.”

Good, Hillary, denigrate Republicans as liars who happen to be people of faith. This is an excellent way to win elections.

While Mrs. Clinton has sought opportunities in recent months to stake claims to the political center, emphasizing nuances on abortion and immigration that may appeal to some Republicans and conservatives, her speech today was a starkly partisan rallying cry to her troops at a time when at least four New York Republicans are preparing to challenge her in 2006. She did, however, have some kind words for some past Republican presidents - Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush - but only to praise their stabs at bipartisanship and to slight the current President Bush’s posture by comparison.

“We can’t ever, ever give in to the Republican agenda,” she declared. “It isn’t good for New York and it isn’t good for America.”

Whoever said she wasn’t a partisan? I suppose Carvell will have to spin another “New Democrat ” speech for her.

Abetting the Republicans, she said in some of her sharpest language, is a Washington press corps that has become a pale imitation of the Watergate-era reporters who are being celebrated this month amid the identification of the anonymous Washington Post source, Deep Throat.

“The press is missing in action, with all due respect,” she said. “Where are the investigative reporters today? Why aren’t they asking the hard questions? It’s shocking when you see how easily they fold in the media today. They don’t stand their ground. If they’re criticized by the White House, they just fall apart.

“I mean, c’mon, toughen up, guys, it’s only our Constitution and country at stake,” she said. “Let’s get some spine.”

The New York Times and Washington Post editorial boards must be extremely happy now - especially with their declining subscription rates.

A particularly “excruciating test” for the nation’s political future, Mrs. Clinton predicted, could come this summer in a showdown over a nominee to the United States Supreme Court, if one or more current members retire.

President Bush “wants to nominate someone, I believe, who will be a confrontational nominee so that he can provide support to his far-right extremist base,” Mrs. Clinton said. “And we have to stand as firmly as possible against that.”

Flap is looking forward to that bottle of wine!

Pope Benedict, in his first clear pronouncement on gay marriages since his election, on Monday condemned same-sex unions as fake and expressions of “anarchic freedom” that threatened the future of the family:

The Pope, who was elected in April, also condemned divorce, artificial birth control, trial marriages and free-style unions, saying all of these practices were dangerous for the family.

“Today’s various forms of dissolution of marriage, free unions, trial marriages as well as the pseudo-matrimonies between people of the same sex are instead expressions of anarchic freedom which falsely tries to pass itself off as the true liberation of man,” he said.

The Pope spoke to families at Rome’s St. John’s Cathedral on an issue that has become highly controversial around the world, particularly in Europe and the United States.

In April, parliament in traditionally Catholic Spain gave initial approval to a law legalizing gay marriage. It is widely expected to be approved by the Senate and to become law.

But just last week, California’s Assembly killed off a bill that would have allowed gay marriage in the most populous U.S. state.

The Pope, who as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger headed the Vatican’s doctrinal department for more than two decades, said “pseudo freedoms” such as gay marriages were based on what he called the “banalisation of the human body” and of man himself

But, will the Holy Father hold left wing American Catholic politicans ( e.g.John Kerry, Ted Kennedy accountable for their non-Catholic views on abortion, gay mariage and euthanasia?

OOOOOOOPPPPPPSSSSSS!

And this is not even the Fox News Channel!